Five Types of Divorce Cases Divorce Attorneys Handle

It can be difficult to accept that your joyous walk down a flowery aisle ended up in divorce court, but sadly, sometimes life takes spouses on separate paths. If you’ve decided that divorce is inevitable in your situation and are ready to file, or if you’ve been served with divorce papers from your spouse, it’s time to consider how you’d prefer to accomplish the process. There are five types of divorces in Colorado, each with its benefits and drawbacks and the Fort Collins family law attorneys are here to educate you more about them.

1. Uncontested Divorce in Colorado

No divorce is a positive occasion, but an uncontested divorce is the best-case scenario of divorce with less contention and adversarial feelings. In an uncontested divorce, both spouses willingly avoid court by meeting with their attorneys to craft a mutually agreeable divorce settlement. An uncontested divorce settlement agreement must cover all aspects of a Colorado divorce including:

• Child custody
• Child support
• Division of marital assets
• Spousal support

In an uncontested divorce, spouses do not have disputes to settle in court so a trial isn’t necessary. Instead, they submit their signed agreement to a judge. In most cases, the judge simply signs it into binding orders unless it’s grossly unfair to one spouse or the judge suspects it was signed under duress. An uncontested divorce is faster, less expensive, and less contentious than a contested divorce.

2. Colorado Contested Divorce

When spouses have legal disputes over one or more aspects of divorce, such as a child custody disagreement or disputes over the division of their assets, and cannot resolve them through meetings with their attorneys and mediation attempts, the case goes to court in a contested divorce. In court, both spouses and their Fort Collins contested divorce attorneys present their arguments for a judge to decide and issue binding orders in the divorce decree.

3. Collaborative Divorce in Colorado

In a collaborative divorce in Colorado, both spouses agree at the very beginning of the process to keep their divorce out of court to avoid contention, and expense, and to maintain their privacy by keeping the divorce out of the public record. During a collaborative divorce process, both spouses arrange a series of meetings with their attorneys and a professional mediator until they resolve any disputes without a divorce trial.

4. Default Divorce in Colorado

When one spouse files for divorce, they become the petitioner in the process and the other is the respondent. If the respondent fails to file their pleadings to the court within the time limit and doesn’t participate in the process, the divorce becomes a divorce by default. The petitioner obtains the default divorce under their requested terms without their spouse having a say in any aspect of the divorce including child custody and the division of assets and debts.

5. A Mediated Divorce in Colorado

A mediated divorce is similar to a collaborative divorce in that both spouses agree ahead of time to keep their divorce out of court and uncontested. In a mediated divorce, a professional mediator works with the spouses to settle any disputes by offering creative solutions from a neutral position. The divorcing spouses agree to abide by the mediator’s decisions and form a binding agreement that’s then sent to the judge for a signature without the need for a trial.